…Shakespeare, that is. It would also be good for John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Dodd, and perhaps soon, Hillary. Actually, it kind of makes me want to try some winter camping again.

This scene is from “As You Like It”. The Duke of Amiens has suffered a political reverse of his own, and takes exile in the forest of Arden. There is much I could say, but it would all sound so inarticulate set next to Shakespeare, so I’ll let it stand on its own:

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

Wow. Shakespeare is really quite profound. I usually refer to Shakespeare’s plays as “stupid people stories” because someone always commits suicide over a falsehood. Or mostly, I don’t know that much from Shakespeare.

You know, Jeff, last year I went through a very tough experience personally and I longed to get away to the mountains. I didn’t indulge myself, just soldiered through, and it got worse. I needed that break with nature.

I’ve been thinking longingly lately of camping. I haven’t been camping in years, but what Shakespeare describes fits my longing perfectly.

Sweet are the uses of adversity, though, I don’t know. I’ve never appreciated my adversity enough. I’ve never asked “what is the lesson?” or “how can I use this?” though. I’ve often used my adversities to validate others or to stand up for the underdog, but never saw the lesson.

Even someone with as little self-awareness as Bush must occasionally, somewhere deep within, understand if only vaguely, what a disaster he has been. We saw a little of this vulnerability on election day 2004, when he thought the voters might have rejected him in an “accountability moment”. The whole second term has been bluster and bravado and keeping up appearances. Above all, he is trying to disguise the hollowness within. How much happier he would have been as, say, the commissioner of baseball.

In as much as Shakespeare was satirizing home spun wisdom by means of an unscrupulous hollow shell of a character, Mitt’s antagonists should agree that he did, in fact, follow Polonius’ advice when he “flip-flopped” on this or that issue in order to be true to his political ambitions.

However, in the spirit of a text greater than any ever conceived by the Bard one might be advised to withold judgment on the subject as the Master himself might be construed as the greatest of all flip-flippers–that is if one is too careless in his perusal of the text. And even then, the most tedious perusal is bound to yield the same results if the text is viewed through the eyes of unbelief. For even the most liberal of minds the will of God ultimately requires a bending that is impossible without an Abrahamic-like faith.

The strait and narrow may appear terribly crooked from the wrong vantage point.

I’m not sure Mitt will ever understand why even people from his own Church didn’t like him. At least he can sleep well and got make back part of his money giving speeches. I’m sure he can command $60K a speech, and if he gives 50 of those a year, that’s $3M. By 2016, he can make back the money he spent on himself.

Shakespeare often turned a “hairy eyeball” to politics and politicians. That is one reason I love his works so much.

For the Duke, and Mitt, true satisfaction will come when the politician realizes a life not as a politician. For Mitt, this may even grant him success. A good politician he is not.

For us, true satisfaction will come when we realize a life without those things we have put up as our obsessions- occupations, intellectual pursuits, even politics- because there are more brilliant and actually TRUE things to be learned from the Creator- tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing.